Cart.com's $98M Raise To Build Out End-To-End e-Commerce Service

It's high tide for e-commerce, and Cart.com is swimming in it. With the meteoric rise of online shopping, the end-to-end e-commerce-as-a-service provider recently announced a series B funding raise of $98 million, bringing its total funding to over $140 million since launching just eight months ago.

The new round was led by venture growth equity fund Oak HC/FT, which invests primarily in tech-enabled health care and financial services companies. Other key investors include PayPal Ventures PYPL, Clearco, Raven One Investors, G9 Ventures, and executives at Discover Financial DFS, Robinhood HOOD, Blinds.com, and Uber UBER.

"We plan to use our Series B to continue to accelerate the growth of our end-to-end platform on multiple fronts, including the improvement of our fulfillment services by augmenting the existing team with additional people, process and technology, and hiring 75 additional people across engineering, product, sales and marketing," a Cart.com spokesperson told Modern Shipper.

Those measures will bolster Cart.com's integrated e-commerce solution, which targets e-commerce brands that are ready to scale their businesses.

The spokesperson emphasized that, alongside pandemic-fueled e-commerce demand, the company's offering of the first end-to-end e-commerce-as-a-service platform is what has spurred its remarkable growth; it now services over 2,000 e-commerce brands, with revenue increasing by more than 400% since the beginning of 2021. Cart.com is also scaling its workforce, aiming to boost headcount fifteenfold from a couple dozen in January to over 300 by year's end.

Since launching in November, Cart.com has made seven key acquisitions, including AmeriCommerce, Spacecraft Brands, DuMont Project, and, most recently, Sauceda Industries. With each deal, Cart.com adds another service to its all-encompassing e-commerce umbrella, and each has helped it gain more traction with investors.

"Realizing the potential of a promising e-commerce brand is never easy, but Cart.com's true full-service platform gives both startups and established brands the tools they need to succeed at scale," said Allen Miller, principal at Oak HC/FT, on Wednesday. "In the fragmented world of e-commerce, Cart.com's unified platform puts merchants back in control of their business, empowering them to stay focused on their brand, product, and customers. We're thrilled to be supporting their mission."

Today, the company processes more than $700 million in gross merchandise value every year, with notable customers including household brand GNC, promising startup Haymaker Coffee and multibillion-dollar B2B distributor KeHE. Cart.com plans on continuing to acquire leading solution providers, with two to three more acquisitions on the docket for 2021, the company spokesperson told Modern Shipper.

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